The House

Thanks to my most awesome sister, I figured out how to get pics off my phone and on to my computer!  Yea!  So here are a few pics of the house.  Please remember these are not as good as other pics might have been had I been able to afford the camera of my dreams! 

The master bedroom will need to be tweeked a bit.  After noticing how gold it was and how it didn't really work well with the bathroom, we will have to change it.  I love the gold, but it is easier to change the bedroom than the bathroom.  So, once that's done, the painting project will be done!  Thank You Grandpa and Grandma Dummar for all your help!  We wouldn't have been able to get this done so quickly without you!

Hello and once again....

So the other day as I was in my room preparing myself for the upcoming excitement of homeschooling, (meaning I was trying to take a nap) I could hear my kids horse playing and I thought about yelling at them but decided to try to ignore them... BAD IDEA!!!  I should have yelled.  Matthew was running around with my camera and Landon was chasing him trying to get it away from him... needless to say I no longer have a working camera.  So unless anyone wants to send an extra one my way it will be a while before I get a new one since I don't want to spend the money on one I don't like so I'm saving up for one I do like:  Cannon EOS Rebel Ti2 from Costco is my preferred but I would take a Nikon D90 as well.  So faithful followers I will keep the updates coming but they won't contain pics for a little while.  :) 

Curbing

Our curbing has gone in!  What do you think?  (not that it matter's all that much because it's already done, but you can have an opinion any way ;) )

 As I walked into my house, I noticed I had another friend that was hanging around!  His name is Bob.  I hope he's not poisonous!  He brought his family to stay too!  So happy about that!

Rain, Rain, Please Stay!

So today it has rained pretty much all day!  I love the rain, but I especially love Thunder Storms with great lightening displays!  Today's storm: AWESOME!!  I don't yet have a camera good enough to take great pictures of lightening, but I did catch some pics of the road in front of our house and our neighbors roof.

 Don't you just love how our street is flooded?

I know it's not the best photography out there, but I hope it conveys a small portion of how cool this storm is!

  And as a cool little afterthought, here's a pic of our resident spider:  I'll name his Pete.  I don't know how long Pete will be residing with us, but once our screen goes in... Good-bye Pete!

Projects on hold for a little while

So as I finished the bathroom, and Joe started more hours at work, I decided to take a mini break from projects. 

Only because I want to do them with Joe... and I'm a perpetual procrastinator.  ;)  So this week we are just going to take it easy.  But I am going to be giving a lesson in Relief Society on Sunday on Eternal Marriage.  This is a wonderful opportunity to reflect upon my own marriage.  I must say that I have the best husband in the world.  He inspires me everyday to be better and more.  I am so thankful that we have been sealed in the temple.  I am so thankful that so long as we are worthy and work together for it, we can have a marriage that lasts through out eternity!  I feel so blessed to be able to have this future ahead of me! 

I can hardly wait to have the chance to help the sisters in my ward to learn and grow from this lesson, as well as be inspired to have eternal marriages regardless of all the trials they are facing now.  Wish me luck!

Project 3

So this one isn't a wood working project but I decided it was time to put something other than the nasty flat paint on my walls.  So I thought to myself, Self, which room would be the quickest.  I know! said self, The bathroom called "pool bath"!  (even thought I have no pool ... perhaps I will change it to Tramp bath... )  So I picked out a green that I thought would be fantastic!  It's a bright room normally so I picked a darker color to bring out all the bright trim.  I love it!  The boys even helped along the way... ;0)  But I did soon find out that just taping off that room would probably take the longest ever!  Because of all fixtures that are cemented to the walls and the taping off the shower, floor and ceiling... it became a larger project than originally planned for...

  So Yes we have some touch-ups to do, but over all I think it turned out quite well... That is if you don't pay too much attention to the items below:

Missing toilet ring happened when Landon was painting the corner and stood on it... 'nuff said on that. 

Evidence that I was not alone in my painting project:

Once the minor touch ups happen and the toilet gets put back in place, I'll post the final outcome. 

Project 2

So for our second kind of big project we made three small simple bookcases.  These were so easy to make!!  They still need another coat of paint, but I love them!!


Here are some pics of the process:

I hope everyone love these as much as I do!!

There was only one thing that happened, I accidentally put a nail through Joe's finger.  He was marking where I was supposed to nail, and his thumb slipped and so did the gun right as I pulled the trigger.  I stopped using the nail gun after that.  Don't worry, He's fine.  The nail went right through.  (I felt so bad I had to put myself in a big timeout!)

So Yes this project actually does have blood, sweat and tears mixed in with it!

Project 1

I labeled this Project 1 because it's our first wood project.  We have many projects that need to be done and some we have already accomplished, like hanging ceiling fans.  But Joe and I have decided instead of purchasing items that are over priced, we would find a way to build them ourselves. 

Now in the beginning, I thought to myself, "Great!  Joe will get to utilize his tools and stretch our imaginations on how to accomplish these projects!"

Joe on the other hand was thinking along the lines of, "SWEEEEEET!!!  I get to buy all those awesome tools I've been drooling over for the last 6 years!!!" 

You'll never guess whose thoughts actually panned out....

That's right.  You guessed it... Joe's were much more accurate than mine.  We are now the happy owners of the following power tools...

Skill Saw
Miter Saw
Table Saw
Nail Gun
Air Compressor
Brad Nailer
finish Nailer
Kreg Jig
Belt Sander
8' Ladder
18 Volt Cordless Drill
Cordless Electric Screw Driver

I think that's it,  but I'm sure that will also shortly include a plainer (spelling is limited to writer's knowledge of tools) and a Jig Saw, an actual work bench complete with clamps and anvil, along with a slew of other tools unbeknownst to me. But in the end I will have the ability to create and build just about anything wooden... I hope... maybe.  (by I, I really mean Joe, not me)  Any who, our first undertaking was to build us a new bed.  My old bed was fine, but after ... 5 moves, it's a little "worn".  So I found a website that I think everyone should look at called, www.ana-white.com  I love this site.  Any who, I found a simple farmhouse bed that I fell in love with.  On this site, she, Ana, explains how to make these fantastic items.  So we checked out the list of purchase items, went to every home improvement store and found all the tools we needed and got to work.  The process was simple and I would make a dozen of these if I had a reason to do so. 
Here is a look at the finished product:

Please don't mind the mess on the floor, I'm still trying to find places to put things.  (I've only been in the house 3 weeks, give me a break!)

I wish I had taken pictures of the whole process.  I absolutely love this bed.  It's rustic and if it gets beat up, I didn't pay $$$$$$'s for it. 

Our next project will be book cases for the kids books.  I will let you know how they turn out.  And maybe I will remember to take pictures of the process! ;) 

The end of an Era

The days of "easy" moving are now gone.  My entire married life as been wonderful.  It still is, but as the end of my time in Monterey draws near, I realize just how good I had it.  I have been blessed with being able to have my husband available to me for every move.  This move, even though he's here and not on the other side of the world, has been all me and less than pleasant.  I feel chaotic and disorganized and as if this day has come all too soon.  The packers come tomorrow and I know I am getting down to the wire.  Joe has been as helpful as he can but his thesis comes first right now.  I just want him to get it done.  I have amazing friends that want to help and I appreciate they are willing to do to help me.  But I am starting to feel the sadness creep in and the reality of leaving some of my dearest friends behind come to the forefront.  I love my friends here and I will miss them so much.  I think the older I get the harder it is to say good bye to these wonderful people that come into and bless my life.  I know it's difficult for my kids.  I sent kid #2 to school and his little heart was breaking because he is going to miss his friends.  Even the mentioning of cousins and fun adventures didn't cheer him up.  He love is teacher, and do I.  I wish I could just take everyone with me where ever I go.  But the Lord has need of me in other places.  As my family sets out on this next adventure, I will keep all these friends in my heart.  Thank you Monterey Bay for letting me in on all your beauty and thank you friends who love me and all my drama!  I will miss you.

Are We Ready?

Today was a good day like most other days.  We woke up and had a great breakfast then set off in search of prices of the things we will need if we become home owners.  So we started our research at non other than the Home Depot!  This is a dangerous store.  We walked in went straight for the ceiling fans.  We don't have any in this new home so we figured it might be good to help keep the cost of our utilities down.  We found a few we liked and other we thought were awful!  Good thing we aren't buying them now because they are a bit pricey.  (at least when you have to buy 5 of them)  Then we headed over to the lawn mowers.  Yes we will have to get a lawn mower or else pay some ridiculous price each month to have a "professional" come out and do what Joe and I can do.  Then we remembered there are no exterior lights on this new home so we mozied on over to the lighting to price those out.  Boy, our list seems to be growing and we have no idea what else we just might need.  After that Joe decided he wanted to "just look" at some tools.  No we didn't buy any but I have rarely seen my husbands eyes shine and widen with excitement as I did today while he looked and compared table miter saws and planers, dremmel's and router tables.  I now know what to buy him if I ever find myself having an extra 700-1,000 dollars laying around. :)  Then I convinced him we should go over the IKEA near by to look at beds for the boys.  We found that no matter what we liked, we needed to have the boys there to pick out their beds.  But we did find the perfect guest bedroom set for a really good price.  (I love IKEA)  After that we took a ride over toward the house and stopped in at Lowes to see if their fans are any different than Home Depot's and we found just what we wanted!  Let's home things don't change too much in the next few months... If we get the house that is.  We then went over to the housing office to see if we could sneak another peek at the house and our housing buddy, Bev, gave us the keys and said to take our time.  We also took a look at the surrounding homes to see what the typical saturday will look like.  The pool looked great and very inviting, too bad we don't have a key :(  But in the end we just relaxed and made phone calls to get quotes on how much internet, phone and cable would be.  We left the home and decided it was time to head out for dinner.  We chose Bucca Di Beppo's for dinner.  Boy oh boy!  I love that place.  We ate and raced out to the hotel so Joe could change his clothes for the Priesthood session of General Conference.  I know we should have listened to it today but since the first session doesn't start until noon, we figure we will have time to listen to it in the morning.  I am here at the church with him so he doesn't have to drive home alone.  I have tucked myself away into a classroom and thought now would be a good time to update the blog for the day.  I hope everyone has had a great day like we have.  One word of advice... Don't go to Home Depot or Lowe's while wearing high-healed sandals.  Your feet will hurt and they will swell.  Just in case you wanted to know.    :)

Oh the Warmth!

In spite of the crazy weather yesterday, today is beautiful!  Warm and sunny, just the way I like it.  We got up "early" and got ourselves ready and we headed out for the beautiful Orlando temple.  We have made it a few temples in our eleven years of marriage and this one did not disappoint.  The workers were kind and happy to be there and I don't blame them one bit!  I hope that someday I can work at the temple.  It's so peaceful and so inspiring.  It was great to be there and not have to worry about rushing back to make sure the kids had not tied up the sitter or drove them crazy.  It was just what we needed to make sure the decisions we are making are the right ones.  Our Realtor is under the weather at the moment so we have the day to ourselves and we plan on making the rounds to get familiar with the communities around here.  Last night we went to a little bistro called NoHo Bistro.  I have decided that Bistro's are the best!  They are quiet and usually not too crowded.  The waiter was funny, the owner very nice, and the chef was spectacular! We started out with black pepper and cheddar biscuit with homemade apricot butter, YUM!  Next was the salsa and tortilla chips, Three kinds of salsas that were do die for! One regular fresh salsa, one orange and pepper salsa and our favorite, a Thai Peanut salsa!  then we were treated to a salad with greens, candied walnuts, apple bacon and a cheddar vinaigrette.  Our Entree's:   Joe ate Scallops and Shrimp pasta while I had the Mushroom Ravioli with fresh peas and a tasty white sauce.  Then came dessert!  A Key Lime Raspberry trifle with Coconut bread!  Oh I was in heaven!!!  I could have died a very happy woman last night.  But then I would have missed out on attending the temple today so it was a good thing I didn't die!  Any who, of course I took pics on my phone but alas I still haven't figured out how to get them on my computer yet.  As soon as I can, I will get them uploaded!  Off for more adventures!

Tornado!!!

So while Joe and I are in Tampa trying to get our future housing taken care of, we stopped in to the BX on MacDill to get Joe some sandals (his had a mold infestation that we can't quite explain since he never uses them ... or maybe that's why?)  then we decided to eat some lunch while there.  In the midst of eating my "Archer" sandwhich from the almost Subway shop called Robin Hood Sandwiches, the lovely Aussie that was speaking over the loud speaker announced that the base was under a tornado warning and to please gather our things and move to the back of the store to Customer service.  We kind of laughed and gather our stuff and moved back to where the crowd was being herded.  After a short while, they announced we would be stuck there for about 30 minutes.  So we made ourselves as comfortable as we could on the hard linoleum tiled floor right in front of the very new and impressive Sony 3D TV to watch the ending of a little film called AVATAR.  I do have to say it was very impressive to watch that movie on a 3D screen.  I was almost entertained!  But my fun couldn't last as long as that movie.  After just 15 minutes the storm passed and we were cleared to go.  As we exited and got in the car, we noticed it had dropped a lot of rain, but not too much damage to the immediate area.  So we set off on our adventure of finding my dream home.  We got the Nav. all set up to tell us where to go and we left the base.  But after about a mile we saw just how much damage was done.  There were tree's down and roads washed out.  We had to turn around and find an alternate route to our location.  I wish I had thought of taking pictures of the guard rail that was torn up and in the middle of the road, but I was not so quick.  But we did get a picture of the road that we drove on that was flooded. :)  I will add it to my post when I can figure out how to get it off my phone.  Yes once again I forgot to bring my camera.  :(   As our adventures continue on our quest to finding our dream home I will keep you updated and I am sure we will have plenty to share with all of you!